Best known as
Prison Break (2005)'s General Jonathan Kranz (Padman) and the Malibu police chief in
The Big Lebowski (1998), Russom was, for 22 years, a New York stage actor whose day job was soaps, with long tenures as Joe Taylor on
Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967), Willis Frame on
Another World (1964), and Jack Darling on
All My Children (1970). The feature
No Way Out (1987) brought Russom to Los Angeles in 1987.
A year later, after starring opposite
Carol Burnett in
Hostage (1988), he moved to LA permanently to star in NBC's
TV 101 (1988). Emmy-nominated for
Long Road Home (1991), Russom has continued his theatrical activity in Los Angeles (and on Broadway) while establishing himself as a presence in episodic television and feature films, including
True Grit (2010), his second film with Joel and Ethan Coen.